System and methods for determining and displaying product promotions

Abstract

A product promotion display system comprises a server computer hosting a network of terminals, each terminal having a display for displaying advertisements and product promotion information to a customer. The server computer has access to a product promotion database containing data to be used in assembling advertisements and product promotion information to be displayed on one or more of the terminals. A product promotion software object executed by the server computer accesses the database in order to retrieve data therefrom to be used in assembling advertisements and product promotion information to be displayed on one or more of the terminals. A user interface connected to the terminals and to the promotion software object causes the assembled advertisements and product promotion information to be displayed on one or more of the terminals.

Claims

I claim:

1. A product promotion display system, comprising:

a server computer hosting a network of retail self-service terminals located throughout a store, each terminal having a display for displaying custom interactive advertising content promoting in-store products;

a product promotion database accessible by the server computer, the product promotion database containing data to be used in assembling advertisements and product promotion information to be displayed on one or more of the terminals, the product promotion database containing a specification selectably assigning each terminal to one or more device groups, and defining groups of advertisements and product information for display on one or more of the device groups of terminals;

a product promotion software object executed by the server computer, the product promotion software object having access to the database in order to retrieve data therefrom to be used in assembling advertisements and product promotion information to be displayed on one or more of the terminals; and

a user interface connected to the terminals and to the promotion software object, the user interface causing the assembled advertisements and product promotion information to be displayed on one or more defined groups of terminals.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the product promotion database contains definitions of groups of advertisements that are to be displayed together.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the product promotion database contains a specification of a time schedule for the display of each ad group.

4. The system of claim 2, wherein the product promotion database contains a specification of an ordering for the display of advertisements within each ad group, either according to an explicit ordering or according to a random order algorithm.

5. The system of claim 2, wherein each ad group can be configured to run independently on any terminal or group of terminals, and wherein each terminal or group of terminals can be configured to run any number of different ad groups, thereby enabling a retailer to define advertising content that should be displayed on any terminal or group of related terminals.

6. The system of claim 2, wherein advertisements are maintained independently, thereby allowing advertisements to be created independently and subsequently grouped together to form ad groups.

7. The system of claim 2, wherein the product promotion database comprises a set of predefined ad groups.

8. The system of claim 3, wherein advertising content is stored as regular files on an internet information server.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the system is Web-based, with each of the terminals being provided with Web browser software and with the server computer being provided with Web server software.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the user interface comprises active server pages, such that when the browser software at a terminal requests an active server page, the Web server software used by the server computer generates a page with HTML code and sends it back to the browser at the terminal for display, the page containing an advertisement.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the user interface comprises:

an active server page with an attract loop manager server-side include file that provides logic for controlling an attract loop, comprising a sequence of advertisements, instructions, or other content that is displayed on a terminal when it is idle in order to attract a customer to use the terminal;

an ad manager active server page for collecting tally data for each advertisement;

an ad interaction manager active server page that collects data ever time a customer interacts with an advertisement; and

an active server page with an idle time manager server-side include file that provides logic to manage an idle time for each terminal, after which the attract loop is displayed.

12. The system of claim 11, further comprising a product promotion interface connected between the product promotion software object and the user interface for:

retrieving an idle timeout value for a specific terminal;

retrieving instructional content information for a specific terminal; and

retrieving an appropriate ad group to be displayed on a specific terminal.

13. The system of claim 11, further comprising a data collection and analysis module accessible by the product promotion software object for collecting and analyzing data related to the advertisements and product promotion information displayed on the terminals.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the data the is collected and analyzed includes data relating to:

how long each advertisement has been displayed within a specific date/time slot;

the number of times each advertisement has been displayed within a specific date/time slot; and

the number of times a customer interacts with each advertisement.

15. The system of claim 11, wherein each terminal includes a touch-screen display for receiving inputs from, and displaying outputs, to a customer at the terminal, and wherein the attract loop is displayed on the touch-screen display.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the attract loop is displayed on two distinct regions of the touch-screen display, a content region and a navigation region.

17. The system of claim 15, wherein the attract loop at a terminal is terminated by a customer touching the touch-screen display at that terminal.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein when the attract loop has been terminated at a terminal by a customer, the terminal displays a default home page.

19. The system of claim 17, wherein when the attract loop has been terminated at a terminal by a customer, the terminal displays a screen related to a choice selected by the customer on the terminal's touch-screen display.

20. A method for displaying product promotion information, comprising the following steps:

providing a server computer and a network of retail self-service terminals located throughout a store, each terminal having a display for displaying custom interactive advertising content promoting in-store products, said interactive advertising content allowing customers to affect the display of advertising content;

providing a product promotion database accessible by the server computer, the database containing data to be used in assembling advertisements and product promotion information to be displayed on one or more of the terminals, the product promotion database containing a specification selectably assigning each terminal to one or more device groups, and defining groups of advertisements and product information for display on one or more of the device groups of terminals;

retrieving data from the database and using the data to assemble advertisements product promotion information to be displayed on one or more of the terminals; and

causing the assembled advertisements and product promotion information to be displayed on one or more defined groups of terminals.

21. The method of claim 20, comprising the further step of:

defining ad groups comprising related advertisements to be displayed together.

22. The method of claim 21, comprising the further step of:

specifying a time schedule for the display of ad groups.

23. The method of claim 21, comprising the further step of:

specifying an ordering for the display of advertisements within each ad group, either according to an explicit ordering or according to a random order algorithm.

24. The system of claim 22, comprising the further step of:

storing advertising content as regular files on an internet information server.

25. The method of claim 24, comprising the further step of:

providing each of the terminals with Web browser software and providing the server computer with Web server software.

26. The method of claim 25, comprising the further step of:

providing a user interface comprising active server pages, such that when the browser software at a terminal requests an active server page, the Web server software used by the server computer generates a page with HTML code and sends it back to the browser at the terminal for display, the page containing an advertisement.

27. The method of claim 20, comprising the further step of:

collecting and analyzing data related to the advertisements and product promotion information displayed on the terminals.

28. The method of claim 20, comprising the further step of:

defining an attract loop, comprising a sequence of advertisements, instructions, or other content that is displayed on a terminal when it is idle in order to attract a customer to use the terminal.

29. A product promotion display system, comprising:

a server computer hosting a network of retail self-service terminals located throughout a store, each terminal having a display for displaying custom interactive advertising content promoting in-store products;

a product promotion database accessible by the server computer, the product promotion database containing data to be used in assembling advertisements and product promotion information to be displayed on one or more of the terminals, the product promotion database containing a specification selectably assigning each terminal to one or more device groups, and defining groups of advertisements and product information for display on one or more of the device groups of terminals;

a product promotion software object executed by the server computer, the product promotion software object having access to the database in order to retrieve data therefrom to be used in assembling advertisements and product promotion information to be displayed on one or more of the terminals; and

a user interface connected to the terminals and to the promotion software object, the user interface causing the assembled advertisements and product promotion information to be displayed on one or more defined groups of terminals,

the server computer running a promotion software object including a promotion object that performs the following functions:

finding a device group for an in-store terminal by looking up the in-store terminal's address, passed in from the terminal, in a device table to find the in-store terminal's group identifier;

finding all ad groups for the device group by using the device's group identifier and a navigational category identifier, passed in from the terminal, to query a navigational device ad group table to find all ad groups with matching device group identifiers and navigational category identifiers;

finding all scheduled ad groups by using a current system date and time to find all ad groups with time schedules making them eligible for display;

for each eligible ad group, using the ad group's identifier as a key to query an ad group table for the ad group's duration, start type, and order type, and further using the ad group identifier as a key to query an ad group member table for ad identifiers for all ads in the group, their explicit sort indices, their navigational category identifiers, and their random order weights;

for each ad in each eligible ad group, using each ad identifier and current language identifier, passed in from the terminal, as a key to query an ad-language table for the ad's display duration, content URL, and link URL;

constructing a result set of ads containing each ad's ad group identifier, sort index, navigational category identifier, random order weight, display duration, content URL and link URL;

for each ad in each result set, using the ad group's default duration ad group default duration to fill in the ad's display duration if its value is null;

sorting the final result set;

returning the sorted result set, the overall ad group start type, the overall ad group sort order type, and a number of seconds until a current group of ads is due to expire.

30. A method for displaying product promotions, comprising:

finding a device group for an in-store terminal by looking up the in-store terminal's address, passed in from the terminal, in a device table to find the in-store terminal's group identifier;

finding all ad groups for the device group by using the device's group identifier and a navigational category identifier, passed in from the terminal, to query a navigational device ad group table to find all ad groups with matching device group identifiers and navigational category identifiers;

finding all scheduled ad groups by using a current system date and time to find all ad groups with time schedules making them eligible for display;

for each eligible ad group, using the ad group's identifier as a key to query an ad group table for the ad group's duration, start type, and order type, and further using the ad group identifier as a key to query an ad group member table for ad identifiers for all ads in the group, their explicit sort indices, their navigational category identifiers, and their random order weights;

for each ad in each eligible ad group, using each ad identifier and current language identifier, passed in from the terminal, as a key to query an ad-language table for the ad's display duration, content URL, and link URL;

constructing a result set of ads containing each ad's ad group identifier, sort index, navigational category identifier, random order weight, display duration, content URL and link URL;

for each ad in each result set, using the ad group's default duration ad group default duration to fill in the ad's display duration if its value is null;

sorting the final result set;

returning the sorted result set, the overall ad group start type, the overall ad group sort order type, and a number of seconds until a current group of ads is due to expire.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates generally to improvements to in-store retail service terminals, and more particularly to advantageous aspects of a system and methods for using in-store retail service terminals to display promotions and collect promotion data.

2. Description of the Prior Art

At present, there is no integrated system for retailers to display product promotions. Rather, a typical retail establishment relies on an assortment of signs, placards, standing cardboard displays, leaflets and other promotional materials positioned throughout the store to provide promotional information to customers. This approach suffers from a number of disadvantages. First, it is difficult to present the promotional information to the customers in a coordinated and effective manner. Further, it is a cumbersome process to update or rearrange the promotional information, as may be required. In addition, the lack of an integrated system means that it is virtually impossible for a retailer to accumulate any kind of meaningful statistical data relating to the promotional information being displayed. The absence of these data makes it difficult for a retailer to determine the amount of money to be charged for each promotion.

There is thus a need for an automated system for displaying product promotion information to in-store retail customers in a coordinated and effective manner, and for accumulating statistical data relating to the display of the information.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention provides a product promotion display system, comprising a server computer hosting a network of terminals, each terminal having a display for displaying advertisements and product promotion information to a customer. The server computer has access to a product promotion database containing data to be used in assembling advertisements and product promotion information to be displayed on one or more of the terminals. A product promotion software object executed by the server computer accesses the database in order to retrieve data therefrom to be used in assembling advertisements and product promotion information to be displayed on one or more of the terminals. A user interface connected to the terminals and to the promotion software object causes the assembled advertisements and product promotion information to be displayed on one or more of the terminals.

Additional features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent by reference to the following detailed description and accompanying drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a diagram of the components of a system according to the invention.

FIG. 2 is a screenshot of a touch-screen display that may advantageously be used with the system shown in FIG. 1.

FIG. 3 is a diagram of a database for use with the system shown in FIG. 1.

FIG. 4 is a more detailed diagram of the database shown in FIG. 3.

FIG. 5 is a diagram of a method according to the present invention for retrieving an appropriate ad group for display on a given in-store terminal.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The present invention enables retailers to display sales promotions to customers throughout a retail establishment using a network of retail self-service terminals. In one embodiment of the invention, each terminal is provided with Web browser software. The network server computer is provided with Web server software. Retailers provide custom advertising content in the form of Web pages that are displayed on terminal touch-screen displays. The ads appearing on these pages can promote anything about the store, such as in store products, sale items, the store itself, and so forth. When a terminal is idle, it displays a sequence of promotions called an "attract loop." An attract loop cycles through a specified series of advertisements, instructions, or other content to attract the customer to use the retail self-service terminal.

In addition, the present invention allows retailers to collect promotion data, which includes: (1) how long each advertisement has been displayed within a specific date/time slot; (2) the number of times each advertisement has been displayed within a specific date/time slot; and (3) the number of times a customer interacts with each advertisement. This data provides different options to a retailer for charging vendors for advertisement costs. For example, a retailer can charge according to how long the advertisement is displayed, when the advertisement is displayed, or a combination of both. A retailer can also charge according to how many times each advertisement is guaranteed to be seen by customers.

While a sequence of advertisements is running, the customer touches a designated area of a terminal's touch-screen display to terminate the sequence and ready the terminal for use. The designated area includes the advertisement itself or, alternatively, a navigation button. When the advertisement sequence has been terminated, the customer is presented with a default home page for the given terminal or, alternatively, a screen related to the choice the consumer has selected on the screen. This could be, for example, a screen that displays additional information about the promotion that was being displayed, or a new product category.

All sequences start automatically when a user makes a selection or, in the case of the attract loop, when the retail terminal becomes idle. The attract loop starts automatically based upon the configurable idle times for each designated group of retail self-service terminals.

When the present invention is installed, it is configured by the retailer, who configures: (1) retail terminal device groups; (2) advertisement information; (3) advertisement group information; and (4) time schedules.

The device group configuration enables a retailer to place related devices into groups. The grouped devices can be related, for example, by location or department. Device groups enable a retailer to quickly define the content that should be displayed on related devices.

The retailer can add, update, and delete information about advertisements in the retail self-service terminal database. Adding information about an advertisement consists of specifying: (1) a description of the advertisement; (2) a time value, in seconds, that defines how long the ad should appear; (3) a uniform resource locator (URL) defining the content that appears when a consumer interacts with the ad that is displayed; (4) a weighting factor that is used to determine the number of successive times the ad should be displayed within an attract loop; (5) a URL defining the actual advertisement content; and (6) an advertisement media type (for example, GIF image, MPEG video, ASF streaming video, and so forth).

In a preferred embodiment of the invention, all of the advertisements are maintained independently, which allows advertisements to be created independently and later grouped together to form "ad groups." This enables advertisements to be reused within multiple ad groups and for ad groups to repeat the same advertisement multiple times. Once the device groups and advertisements are defined, the retailer can define advertisement groups that act as sequences. For added convenience, the present invention delivers a set of predefined ad groups. The retailer can modify these predefined groups in the same manner as other ad groups defined by the retailer.

The function of configuring ad groups comprises specifying: (1) a description for each ad group; (2) the advertisements that make up each ad group; (3) how the advertisements are ordered; (4) how to initiate the ad group (always from the beginning or from where it was last terminated); (5) a default duration for each advertisement to be displayed; (6) how often instructional content displays while the sequence is running; (7) how to interpret the instructional content frequency value, i.e., as a function of time (for example, displaying the instructional content every 30 seconds) or as a function of the ads in the group (for example, displaying the instruction content after every five ads); (8) the navigation context for each ad group.

In addition, the retailer can specify a time schedule for the advertisement group and can also specify the order in which the ads in the group are displayed using one of two ordering options, either explicit ordering or random ordering.

Each ad group can be configured to run independently on any of the retail self-service terminals. Conversely, each device can be configured to run any number of different ad groups. These two options enable retailers to tailor the promotional content and to define when that content is displayed for different areas of the store. For example, a retailer can decide to run a sequence of cereal promotions on the retail self-service terminals located in the cereal aisle on a Saturday morning in order to appeal to children shopping with their parents on the weekends.

Each sequence of advertisements consists of logical groups of ads as defined by the retailer. A retailer can specify a time schedule for displaying each advertisement group. A single ad group can be scheduled differently for each device on which it is run.

Back office or enterprise-level personnel can develop customer advertising and instructional content to be displayed as part of each sequence of advertisements. The advertising and instructional content is independent of the product promotion component. Content developers can use any content development tool they choose.

The advertising and instruction content are stored as regular files on the internet information server. This content can consist of any type of data that can be rendered, either natively or through support plug-ins, by the Web browser.

Because advertisements are maintained independently from ad groups, each ad group can consist of promotions of different promotion content types. For example, a given ad group may consist of one HTML advertisement, one static image advertisement, and one digital video advertisement. The present invention includes a set of advertising and instruction content templates that assist developers in their content development by providing sizing and style guidelines.

FIG. 1 shows a diagram of a presently preferred embodiment of a system 10 incorporating the invention. As shown in FIG. 1, the system 10 comprises a server computer 12 that hosts a network of in-store terminals 14. The in-store terminals in the present embodiment comprise small-footprint PCs located throughout a retail establishment. Each in-store terminal 14 runs Web browser software 16, and is provided with a touch-screen display 18, speaker 20, and printer 22. The touch-display screen 18 displays text, graphics, and video images as an output to a retail customer, accompanied by an audio input, such as a voice recording or music, at speaker 20. The retail customer provides inputs to the touch-screen display 18 by touching indicated areas of the screen display that function as buttons. As described further below, the touch-screen display 18 is divided into a number of distinct regions providing different functions of the present invention. Additional input and output devices may be added to the system 10, as desired. Further, although the present embodiment makes use of in-store terminals, it would be within the spirit of the invention for the system to work with off-site PCs that are connected into the network by the internet or other means of remote access 24, so that a potential customer or store employee can obtain product promotions remotely.

The server computer 12 includes a product promotion software object 26 (hereinafter referred to as the "promotion object"), which allows users of the object to retrieve the appropriate ad groups based on some set of criteria, for example, device identifier, current date and time, etc. In the present invention, the promotion object 26 is implemented in the form of a component object model (COM) object that includes interfaces to other software components, as described below.

The product promotion data required by the promotion module are stored in a database 28 that is compliant with Microsoft's Open Database Connectivity (ODBC) standard. The database 28 is accessed by promotion object 26 by means of Microsoft's Active Data Objects (ADO) 30. This set of objects allows Active Server Pages, discussed below, to seamlessly connect to any ODBC data source and manipulate the data therein.

The promotion object 26 interfaces with a data collection and analysis module 32 to perform statistical data collection, as well as debug tracing. The present embodiment of the invention uses the data collection and analysis module 30 and Active Server Pages to collect the following data:

1. Statistical Data

The following tallies are recorded in the database by the present embodiment of the invention:

Ad display time: The total amount of time each ad is displayed within each ad group. This data can be used to track how long each ad was displayed within a specific date/time slot. It could prove useful to allow retailers to charge vendors for advertising time.

Ad display tally: The total number of times each ad has been displayed. This data may offer an alternative approach to charging vendors for advertising time.

Ad interaction tally: The total number of times a consumer has interacted with each ad. This data gives retailers a quick view of which ads are being interacted with the most.

2. Detailed Transaction Log

The Ad Hit log is recorded in the detailed transaction log files by the Product Promotion/Attract Loop module. The Ad Hit log lists when a consumer interacted with each ad. A consumer interacts with an ad by either terminating the attract loop while that ad is being displayed (via the user interface navigational buttons) or touching an ad while it is being displayed by the user interface.

The Ad Hit log maintains the following data: date and time of when each ad interaction occurred; identifier of the user who interacted with the ad; identifier of the device on which the ad was displayed; identifier of the ad that was interacted with; and the URL of the page that was displayed as a result of the ad interaction.

Retailers can use this data to determine which advertisements were guaranteed to be seen by a consumer. This log may be enhanced to track who interacted with the ad. This information can be gathered when a consumer swipes an identification card (for example, a frequent shopper card) through a magnetic stripe reader (MSR) at a retail self-service terminal or other device.

The present embodiment further provides a user interface 34 that provides an interface between the promotion object 26 and the in-store terminals 14. The user interface 34 is implemented by Microsoft's Active Server Page (ASP) engine, which works in conjunction with the Web server software used by the server computer to complete all server-side processing. These tasks include retrieving Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) request header information from the Web server, some database accesses, and all logic used to build the necessary client-side JavaScript code to process each attract loop.

On the client side, all of the JavaScript code generated by the Active Server Pages requires access to an object model of the platform Web browser. This object model allows any supported scripting language to control the browser from the inside out. The present embodiment of the invention uses this model to access various properties of the platform Web browser.

As shown in FIG. 1, the user interface 34 comprises Active Server Pages (ASPs) 36, 38, 40, 42, which are generated by Microsoft's Active Server Page engine. An ASP is a dynamically created Web pages containing either Visual Basic or Jscript code. Thus, when the browser software 16 at an in-store terminal 14 requests an ASP page, the Web server software used by the server computer 12 generates a page with HTML code and sends it back to the browser 16 at the in-store terminal 14 for display to the retail customer.

In addition, certain of the ASPs used in the present embodiment make use of server-side include (SSI) files 44, 46. The use of SSI files allows the Web server software used by the server computer 12 to dynamically generate data for the ASP whenever it is required. In particular, the SSI's are used to execute programs and to insert the results obtained from the programs into the ASP before they are sent to the browser 16 at an in-store terminal 14. The particular SSIs used in the present embodiment of the invention are described in further detail below.

A promotion interface 48, discussed further below, is provided for connecting the promotion object 26 to the user interface 34.

The present embodiment of the invention uses event management for the promotion object, Active Server Pages, and SSI files. Any errors encountered by the software are logged through an applications programming interface (API) 50. In the present embodiment, the API 50 is provided by NCR Store Minder Universal API. Errors include the following: device not found; device group not found; specified ad group not found; ad groups scheduled without containing any ads; ad groups not found for specified navigational context; specified ad not found; internal database look-up errors; internal processing errors. Additional events to be logged may also be defined, as desired.

For all its timing mechanisms, the present invention uses standard timers accessible from the Web browser object model via JavaScript 1.0. These times are bundled with the platform Web browser.

Because of the technologies used to implement the product promotion module, the following software constraints exist: First, the Active Server Pages used by the product promotion module must be processed by a Web server that supports Active Server Pages. Second, the Web browser used to render all of the product promotion module Web pages must support JavaScript 1.0 or later, as well as the Web browser object model. No hardware constraints exist for the present embodiment of the invention. The present embodiment of the product promotion module uses standard TCP/IP and HTTP communication protocols.

As discussed above, the present embodiment of invention is based on two fundamental concepts: "ad" and "ad group." An ad is a promotion. Each ad includes some type of promotional media called "content." Retailers can develop custom ad content to be displayed on any retail self-service terminal. As discussed above, the present promotion display system is independent of the content used for each ad. Therefore, ad content developers can use any content development tools they choose to develop ads, so long as the developed content is supported by the platform Web browser.

Individual ads are grouped together to form ad groups. Ad groups provide a logical way to group one or more ads that should run together. Each ad can be included in one or more ad groups, making it possible for retailers to reuse their ads in various ad groups. In addition, any single ad can be repeated within any single ad group. Each ad group is assigned a time schedule dictating when it is eligible for display. The following ad group scheduling options are supported by the presently preferred embodiment of the invention: inclusive selection (where date and time define periods of eligibility); a range between two specific dates (specified as month, day, and year); a range between two specific times within a single day (specified as hour and minute); individual days of the week (Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, etc.).

As discussed above, each ad group can be configured to display independently on any retail self-service terminal. Conversely, each terminal device can be configured to display any number of different ad groups. These two options enable retailers to tailor their ads for specific areas of the store (for example, displaying ads for cereal in the cereal aisle). Each ad group can also be configured to have its included ads be displayed in a particular order or random order.

The present embodiment of the invention is divided into three areas of functionality: attract loop, instructional content, and product promotion. Each of these areas are described in greater detail immediately below.

An attract loop is a sequence of promotions, or ad groups, that is displayed at a self-service terminal 14 when it is idle. As discussed above, an attract loop cycles through a specified series of advertisements, instructions, or other content, in order to attract a customer to use the retail self-service terminal. An attract loop starts automatically when any terminal has been idle for a specified period of time.

FIG. 2 shows a screenshot of a touch-screen display 18 on a retail self-service terminal 14 according to the present embodiment of the invention. The display 18 includes seven distinct display regions: retailer logo area 52, screen title 54, instructions 56, content area 58, local navigation buttons 60, global navigation buttons and instructions 62 (including four sub-buttons, 62a-d), and previous screen/main menu navigation buttons 64.

An attract loop displays in two distinct regions of the touch-screen display 18, the content area 58 and the area dedicated to local navigation buttons 60. The content area 58 contains the currently running advertisement, while the local navigation area 60 contains navigational buttons that terminate the attract loop when the buttons are pressed. When a customer touches one of the navigation buttons or, optionally, the ad itself, the currently running attract loop terminates and the system displays a different screen.

Instructional content is automatically displayed in the content area 58 and in the local navigation area 60 as a part of each attract loop. Instructional content is designed to provide assistance in using the retail self-service terminal. Each instructional page is automatically displayed in each attract loop based on a configurable display frequency. In addition, instructional content is displayed when a terminal has gone idle and there are no scheduled ads.

In addition, the present system also offers services that can be used to provide product promotion functionality to any part of the retail self-service terminal system. This allows retailers to specify ad groups to display outside the context of the attract loop that can be viewed during non-idle times. In this case, each ad group is linked to the navigational context of the terminal. For example, if a consumer selects "VCR" as a product category, a group of advertisements or possibly a VCR sales flyer may be displayed to promote different brands of VCRs.

An important component of the present system is the product promotion database 28. FIG. 3 shows a diagram of the categories of database tables used to support the product promotion module: configuration tables 66, device tables 68, ad group tables 70, ad tables 72, and ancillary tables 74. FIG. 4 shows a more detailed diagram of the database tables shown in FIG. 3. The tables shown in FIG. 4 correspond to those shown in FIG. 3 as follows:

Configuration tables 66: Sysparm 66a

Device tables 68: Device 68a, Device-Group 68b

Ad group tables 70: Nav-Device-Ad-Group 70a, Ad-Group 70b, Ad-Group-Member 70c

Ad tables 72: Ad 72a, Ad-Language 72b

Ancillary tables 74: Nav-Category 74a, Language 74b

In FIG. 4, each box has a table name listed above it. Within each box, fields listed above the dividing line define the table's primary key. Other fields, listed below the dividing line, are attributes that can be looked up from the table using a valid primary key value. Fields followed by (FK) define values that can be used as keys into additional tables. Lines between tables convey the relationships between tables.

The database tables used by the Product Promotion/Attract Loop module are described briefly in the following subsections. In each table, the initial heading line gives the name of the table. Field names matching those in FIG. 4 appear down the left side of the table, with a description of the field to the right. A double line appears in the table as the dividing line between the fields comprising the table's primary key (above the double line) and attribute fields (below the double line).

Configuration Tables

The Sysparm configuration table 66a, illustrated in Table 1 below, stores all of the operating and configuration parameters for the Product Promotion/Attract Loop module. All of the device-group-default-XXX fields listed in the table provide the default values necessary for the promotion COM object to dynamically add a new group of system devices. When a query is made for a device that is not listed in the database, the promotion object automatically creates a new entry in the database for that device and it assigns the new device to the device group specified by the device-group-default-id field. If this device group does not already exist in the database, the promotion object automatically creates the device group using all of the device-group-default-XXX field values for the new group's attributes.

                             TABLE 1
                Sysparm Database Table Definition
                             SYSPARM
    Field:               Description:
    ad-group-default-    Default duration (in seconds) for all ads in
    duration             new ad groups.
    device-group-default-id Integer value representing the default
                         device group identifier for new devices.
    device-group-default- String value representing the default start
    home-url             page URL for new device groups.
    device-group-default- Long integer value representing the
    idle-timeout         default amount of idle time (in seconds)
                         before an attract loop starts for new device
                         groups.
    device-group-default- Long integer value representing the
    instruction-duration number of seconds to display instructional
                         content for new device groups.
    device-group-default- Long integer value representing how often
    instruction-period   (in number of seconds or number of ads)
                         to display instructional content for new
                         device groups (for example, every 30
                         seconds or every 10 ads).
    device-group-default- Byte value representing the default period
    instruction-period-type type for new device groups. This field
                         dictates how to interpret the value stored
                         in the device-group-default-instruction-
                         period field. Possible values are
                         INSTRUCTION_PERIOD_TIME or
                         INSTRUCTION_PERIOD_ADS.
    device-group-default- String value representing the default URL
    instruction-url      for instructional content for new device
                         groups.

                             TABLE 2
                 Device Database Table Definition
                              DEVICE
        Field:            Description:
        device-id         Integer value representing the device
                          identifier.
        device-ip-address String value representing the device's IP
                          address.
        device-group-id   Integer value representing the device group
                          identifier.
        device-description String value describing the device.

                             TABLE 3
              Device-Group Database Table Definition
                           DEVICE-GROUP
    Field:             Description:
    device-group-id    Integer value representing the device group
                       identifier.
    device-group-      String value describing the device group.
    description
    device-group-      String value representing the start page URL
    home-url           for the device group.
    device-group-idle- Long integer value representing the amount
    timeout            of idle time (in seconds) before an attract
                       loop starts for this device group.
    device-group-      Long integer value representing the number
    instruction-       of seconds to display instructional content
    duration           for the device group.
    device-group-      Long integer value representing how often
    instruction-period (in number of seconds or number of ads) to
                       display instructional content for the device
                       group (for example, every 30 seconds or
                       every 10 ads).
    device-group-      Byte value representing the period type for
    instruction-period- the device group. This field dictates how to
    type               interpret the value stored in the device-
                       group-instruction-period field. Possible
                       values are INSTRUCTION_PERIOD_TIME
                       or INSTRUCTION_PERIOD_ADS.
    device-group-      String value representing the instructional
    instruction-url    content URL for the device group.

                             TABLE 4
          Nav-Device-Ad-Group Database Table Definition
                       NAV-DEVICE-AD-GROUP
    Field:          Description:
    device-group-id Integer value representing the device group identifier.
    nav-cat-id      Integer value representing the navigational category
                    identifier of the screen displayed (a value of zero
                    indicates that the ad group has not been categorized --
                    only uncategorized ad groups will be shown in the at-
                    tract loop).
    ad-group-id     Long integer value uniquely identifying the ad group.
    nav-device-ad-  Integer value provided to allow the same ad group to
    group-id        be scheduled more than once for the same device
                    group/category ID pair.
    nav-device-ad-  Date value representing the start date of when the ad
    group-start-date group is eligible for display.
    nav-device-ad-  Date value representing the stop date of when the ad
    group-stop-date group is eligible for display.
    nav-device-ad-  Time value representing the start time of when the ad
    group-start-time group is eligible for display.
    nav-device-ad-  Time value representing the stop time of when the ad
    group-stop-time group is eligible for display.
    nav-device-ad-  Byte value bit mask representing which days of the
    group-dow       week the ad group is eligible for display.
    nav-device-ad-  Byte value indicating which type of scheduling is used
    group-schedule- for the ad group. This field is used to indicate which
    type            ad group date/time fields should be used to determine
                    the ad group's time schedule. This field is also used to
                    indicate how to interpret the values of the appropriate
                    ad group date/time fields. Possible values and a more
                    detailed description of ad group scheduling are
                    provided in Table 9, below.

                             TABLE 5
                Ad-Group Database Table Definition
                             AD-GROUP
    Field:          Description:
    ad-group-id     Long integer value uniquely identifying the ad
                    group.
    ad-group-       String value describing the ad group.
    description
    ad-group-default- Long integer value specifying the number of
    duration        seconds to display each ad in the ad group. This
                    field can be overridden for each ad using the ad-
                    language-duration field of the Ad-Language table
                    (Table 8).
    ad-group-start- Byte value specifying how the ad group should be
    type            initiated. Possible values are
                    AD_GROUP_START (always start with the first
                    ad in the group) or AD_GROUP_RESUME
                    (always resume where ad group was last terminated
                    if no other ad groups were displayed since the last
                    time this ad group was displayed; otherwise start
                    with the first ad in the group).
    ad-group-order- Byte value indicating how the ads in the ad group
    type            should be ordered. Possible values are
                    AD_GROUP_ORDER_EXPLICIT (always display
                    ads in the order they were grouped) or
                    AD_GROUP_ORDER_RANDOM (always display
                    ads in a weighted random order as further specified
                    by the ad-group-member-weight field of the Ad-
                    Group-Member table, Table 6.

                             TABLE 6
            Ad-Group-Member Database Table Definition
                         AD-GROUP-MEMBER
    Field:          Description:
    ad-group-id     Long integer value uniquely identifying the ad group.
    ad-group-       Integer value specifying the sort index of the ad
    member-index    within the ad group. Although this field must be
                    specified, its value is ignored if the ad-group-order-
                    type field of the Ad-Group table (Table 5) is set to
                    AD_GROUP_ORDER_RANDOM.
    nav-cat-id      Integer value representing the navigational category
                    identifier of the screen displayed (a value of zero
                    indicates that the ad group has not been categorized --
                    only uncategorized ad groups will be shown in the
                    attract loop).
    ad-id           Long integer value specifying the unique identifier for
                    the ad.
    ad-group-       Byte value from 1 to 100 specifying the sort order
    member-weight   weight of the ad within the ad group. The lowest
                    weight is 1 while the highest weight is 100. This field
                    is only required when the value of the ad-group-
                    order-type field of the Ad-Group table (Table 5) is set
                    to AD_GROUP_ORDER_RANDOM

                             TABLE 7
                   Ad Database Table Definition
                                AD
        Field:          Description:
        ad-id           Long integer value specifying the unique
                        identifier for the ad.
        ad-description  String value specifying a description for the ad.

                             TABLE 8
              Ad-Language Database Table Definition
                           AD-LANGUAGE
    Field:          Description:
    ad-id           Long integer value specifying the unique identifier
                    for the ad.
    Language-id     Integer value specifying the language that the ad
                    was created for.
    ad-language-    Long integer value specifying the amount of time
    duration        (in seconds) to display the ad. If a value for this
                    field is not specified, the ad will be displayed for
                    the amount of time specified by the ad-group-
                    default-duration field of the Ad-Group table
                    (Table 5).
    ad-language-url String value specifying the URL of the ad itself.
    ad-language-link- String value specifying the URL of the page that
    url             will be displayed if a consumer interacts with the
                    ad.

                                             TABLE 9
                                   Ad Group Scheduling Options
    Scheduling Option            Description                    Example
    DATE_RANGE                   Display ad group anytime       Jan. 1,
     1997-Jan. 7, 1997 anytime
                                 between two specified dates.
    TIME_RANGE                   Display ad group between two   2:00 pm-5:00 pm
     every
                                 specified times (not crossing  day
                                 midnight) every day.
    DATE_TIME_RANGE              Display ad group between two   2:00 pm-5:00 pm
     every
                                 specified times (not crossing  day from Jan.
     1, 1997-Jan. 7, 1997
                                 midnight) during the given date
                                 range.
    DATE_TIME_SPAN               Display ad group between two   Jan. 1, 1997 at
     2:00 pm-Jan. 7, 1997
                                 specified dates/times.         at 5:00 pm
    DAYS_OF_WEEK                 Display ad group anytime on    Anytime on
     Sundays,
                                 specified days of the week.    Tuesdays,
     Fridays
    DATE_DOW_RANGE               Display ad group anytime on    Anytime on
     Sundays,
                                 specified days of the week within Tuesdays,
     Fridays from
                                 a specified date range.        Jan. 1,
     1997-Jan. 7, 1997
    DOW_TIME_RANGE               Display ad group between two   2:00 pm-5:00 pm
     only on
                                 specified times (not crossing  Sundays,
     Tuesdays,
                                 midnight) on specified days of Fridays
                                 the week.
    DATE_DOW_TIME_RANGE          Display ad group between two   2:00 pm-5:00 pm
     only on
                                 specified times (not crossing  Sundays,
     Tuesdays,
                                 midnight) on specified days of Fridays from
     Jan. 1, 1997-
                                 the week within a specified date Jan. 7, 1997
                                 range.

• Inventors
  Smith, Derek R.;
• Assignee
  NCR Corporation (Dayton, OH)
• Published
  Dec-31-2002
• Current US Classes:
  705/10
  705/14
  705/26
  707/10
• Application #
  323603
• International Classes
  G06F 017/60
• Field of Search
  705/26 705/27 705/14 705/10 705/66 709/219 707/10
• Examiner
  Coggins; Wynn W.
• Agent
  Priest & Goldstein, PLLC
• US Patent References:
  5392066
  5949411
  5966696
  6177880
  6185610
  6279036
  6282516
  6321209
  6323753
  6366914